15-Minute Spaghetti With Prawns, Peas And Parsley

Nothing beats a good pasta dish, and in a bid to push you outside your comfort zone and cook something at a restaurant standard I wanted to share this gorgeous little recipe.

The beauty of it is that it actually only takes 15 minutes but it is packed full of flavour and the ingredients are surprisingly simple.

Give it a whirl. You'll love it.

Instructions

Step 1

Start by chopping up the garlic as finely as you can, and slicing the shallots.

Step 2

Grate the zest from the lemon and pick the thyme leaves away so as you have no stalks remaining.

Step 3

Lash all that into a pot with some oil and simmer it nice and slow for three to four minutes. You don't want any colour and you want all the nice flavours to seep out.

Step 4

Once the sauce has started, lash the pasta into a pot of boiling water.

Step 5

Next throw the prawns into the frying pan and turn the heat up a little. You want to keep everything ticking over at this stage, moving around the pan using a wooden spoon or spatula.

Step 6

Chop up the parsley. Finer the better.

Step 7

When the prawns start to turn pink throw in the peas. I'm using frozen, as it was all I could find, but fresh peas would make it even better.

Step 8

Throw a good handful of spinach in and it will start to wilt immediately. Squeeze the lemons in on top and you'll see the whole thing steaming up nicely at this stage.

Step 9

Strain the pasta and throw it into the sauce. I add a tiny bit of the pasta cooking water to bulk things out even further in terms of the sauce.

Step 10

Throw in the parsley and a handful of grated parmesan.

Step 11

Stir the whole thing up and season with salt and pepper.

Step 12

Serve it up immediately, family-style in the middle of the table, so people can help themselves.

And best of all? You only need two pots for it, so cleaning up is minimal.

Get stuck in!